Mike knocked on the door to the counselor’s office.

“Come in,” the counselor said.

Mike entered the office. Inside, Miss Werther was at her desk. He took a seat across from her.

“What seems to be the matter?” Miss Werther asked.

“...some of the other students, they’ve been really picking at me about what’s happened with Johnny,” Mike explained.

“Hmmm… what have they been saying?”

Mike took a breath, and told Miss Werther about the too-crude-for-print things which had been written on desks and lockers earlier in the day. As Mike listed them, Miss Werther’s internal thoughts grew darker.

“...Well, I can try to find who’s responsible for those notes,” she started.

“What should I do in the meantime?” Mike asked.

A valid question, to which Miss Werther answered:

“...Try your best to ignore them,” she said.

That’s the best I can do, she thought. Mike thought about the answer for a moment.

“...okay, thanks,” he said.

After a moment, Miss Werther asked another question:

“How is Myra doing? You two seem to be with each other all the time, and from what I’ve heard, she was the original target of Johnny’s… you know,”

“She’s doing okay. I think she knew what Johnny was trying from the start, so… I may have made it happen as much as I screwed up his plan,” Mike said.

“Is she okay with that?”

“With me, or with Johnny?”

“With you, I mean. Sorry,” Miss Werther clarified.

“I don’t think she’s the kind of person who would get mad at me for someone else’s bad choices,” Mike said.

“Oh,”

“Yeah,”

A pause passed through the room. Mike started to gather his things to head to his afternoon classes.

“Thanks,” he said.

“I’ll be around,” Miss Werther said.

 

“That was her recommendation?!” Myra exclaimed.

Myra was on the couch at Mike’s apartment, while Mike was looking in the fridge for something to drink.

“Yeah,” Mike called back.

He grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge, and started making his way to where Myra was seated.

“But that’s… so useless!”

“What else is she going to do?”

Mike sat down next to Myra, as she pondered the question for an atypically long amount of time. Meanwhile Mike picked up a controller to start playing a game. He felt like it was warranted.

“...oh,” Myra said.

“Do you have any better ideas?” Mike asked.

Myra leaned back on the couch and looked up.

“...yes, but that’s not the same as being able to make them happen,” she said.

“What, for her or for you?”

“Uh, yes.”

An awkward pause passed through the room.

“What could you have in mind that she could do?” Mike asked.

“Uh… help organize events for the students?” Myra said.

“Like the prom?”

“Oh,”

Myra leaned back in a rare defeat. She looked at the TV, which was loading whatever game Mike was intending to play.

“Well, I personally was going to stay around to support,” Myra said.

“That’s what you’ve been doing, so you’ll just keep doing that?” Mike asked.

“...yeah,”

“...thanks,” Mike said.

Myra looked over at Mike.

“But enough about that. What’s this game you’re loading up?” Myra asked.

“What-- oh? This? I’ve been playing it a bit lately… do you not know about it?”

“Well, I know of video games, I’m not that unaware of your world. I just don’t know about this one,”

“Oh, do you want me to show you?”

“Yeah,”

“Okay,”

 

Later, after Myra headed home for the night.

“Wow, Johnny has people defending him?” Leslie said.

“Yeah, and they’re going after Mike. He went to the counselor's, who was basically useless,”

“I always thought it was stupid, the counselors,”

“There’s some merit to it, but in this situation she’s just kind of stuck… I was going to talk to her tomorrow, anyway.”

“What for?” Leslie asked.

“Well, I had asked her about something earlier, and I wanted to ask her about it. Plus… I dunno, I feel like I should,” Myra said.

“Oh no. You’re planning ahead for once. That can’t be good.”

“I don’t like how you’re phrasing that…”

“Am I wrong?”

“Well…. I suppose not, but I still don’t like how you phrased it.”

“What are you gonna do about it?”

“Be annoyed at you, and that’s about it.” Myra said.